


Rags and Remembrance

by Nuka_After_Dark



Series: Fallout 3 Ficlets, Drabbles, and One-Shots [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24988138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuka_After_Dark/pseuds/Nuka_After_Dark
Summary: Butch and Wynn decide to make camp for the night and dredge up an old memory while they're at it.
Series: Fallout 3 Ficlets, Drabbles, and One-Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808842
Kudos: 1





	Rags and Remembrance

It was hard sometimes. As much as he might try to keep on a brave and even tough face, it was hard for Butch to keep it together. He wanted, more than anything, what Wynn had. A parent that would be proud of him, a friend that would check in on him beyond what he could do, a resolve of steel that no one could break with taunts and jeers. He wanted it all.

The bottle was still cold as Butch pulled it from his pocket, unscrewing the top and taking a swig in the supposed privacy of the old maintenance closet. As the burn of Vodka hit his throat he nearly spit it back out. Instead he forced himself to swallow, telling himself that thirteen was too old to be such a baby about it. He was just raising the bottle to his lips for another drink when the door opened. The glass slipped from his hand and hit the ground, but remained surprisingly whole. I reached down to grab it before all the alcohol could spill out and turned his attention to the intruder.

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“I saw you come in,” Wynn said, eyeing the now half-empty bottle in the others hand. “Did you get that from your mom?”

“What does it matter where I got it,” he snapped. “It’s mine now!”

“Okay.” Wynn nodded and glanced at the puddle on the floor. “You should clean that up before someone smells it. You could get into a lot of trouble for drinking.”

“Yeah and what do you care, Mis- Mist- What do you care, anyways?”

Wynn shrugged their shoulders and glanced down the hall before turning their attention back to Butch as he scrambled to find something in the closet to mop up the mess he made.

“Hold on,” Wynn said as they walked off down the hall, closing the door behind them. Butch blinked in the sudden darkness, wondering if the light headed feeling was from the Vodka on the floor or the little bit he had drank. He didn’t have long to wonder before the door opened again and Wynn stood there with an armful of rags.

“I don’t think anyone will miss these. Here.”

“Thanks,” Butch muttered, taking a handfull and throwing them onto the puddle. “But I don’t need your help, you know.”

“I know,” Wynn answered as they tossed the rest down where the alcohol had begun to spread. “Did you spill it on purpose?”

“Of course not, stupid! I dropped the dumb bottle when you opened the door!”

“Then why are you getting mad?”

“What do you mean?”

“Daddy says there’s no need to get mad about accidents,” Wynn replied as they got on their hands and knees to help mop. “He says accidents happen all the time. It’s when people do bad things on purpose that you should get mad about it.”

Butch frowned as the kicked one of the rags around to sop up the trail that attempted to leave the main puddle. “You trying to say you didn’t open the door on purpose?”

“No, I did that because I meant to. I just mean that it was an accident you dropped the bottle.” Wynn stood up and wiped their hands on the front of their suit. “There. That should be all of it. I gotta get home now. I told Daddy I was going to get a snack when I saw you come in here.”

“You’re just going to leave me to get all this up on my own?” Butch could feel his anger rising as Wynn shrugged.

“Yeah, I gotta get home soon or Daddy’s gonna get real mad at me. Night, Butch.”

Butch swore under his breath as he gathered up the rags and shoved them into a corner of the room. After a moment of thought he tossed the bottle aside, too. If it was time for Wynn to go home then the patrol would be starting soon and the last thing he needed was to be caught with his mom’s drink on him, especially if the bottle was half-empty.

He made his way home quickly, keeping his head down and his mouth shut as Wynn’s wide words continued to ring through his head.

_It’s when people do bad things on purpose that you should get mad about it._

And as Butch opened the door to be greeted by his screaming mother, he realized that he did, in fact, have plenty to be mad about already.

—

“What are you smiling about,” Wynn asked. Butch chuckled and shook his head.

“You remember that time you caught me drinking in the closet? Back in 101? Man, I thought for sure you’d run off to snitch.”

“Oh.” Wynn began to smile as well, as if the memory had been a happy one. And maybe it was for them. Maybe they remembered it differently. Maybe it was because they didn’t go home to a mom that nearly beat them because a bottle was missing. “My dad was ready to kill me when he smelled the Vodka on me, you know? I told him I thought it was a puddle of water on the floor so I wanted to help clean it up.”

“What did he do?” Butch asked, hoping that maybe it was worse than what had happened to him.

“Made me take an oath not to drink until I was old enough and to leave mysterious puddles up to Stanley to take care of.”

“That was it? Man, I thought my mom was gonna kill me when she realized there was a bottle gone.” Butch chuckled as if the memory were a happy one, but he still felt the twinge of hurt as he remembered her face when she grabbed the belt. “Hey, thanks again for saving her.”

Wynn shrugged as if it were nothing, their eyes downcast. “You ever think about how different things would be if my dad hadn’t left the Vault?”

“Not really,” Butch lied. “I mean, obviously I would still be the ruler of the Tunnel Snakes and you would still be the same loser you always were.”

Wynn looked at him in shock then laughed as they realized Butch was merely teasing. “Yeah, I can imagine that if all this hardly changed, nothing else would either.”

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to check out my Tumblr, nuka-after-dark to see more of my works not posted here or to request a work of your own!


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